With a donated heart, Everett man has a new lease on life

Erik Gelhar is a new father. He and his wife, Jenn, welcomed baby Sophie into the world on Oct. 29. A year earlier, on Oct. 27, 2013, he received another gift of life — a new heart.

At home in Everett on Wednesday, Gelhar, 30, briefly lifted his shirt to show a long, pink scar down the middle of his chest. It will be a lifelong reminder of his heart transplant, performed at the University of Washington Medical Center.

In 2007, Gelhar was diagnosed with a type of cardiomyopathy, which meant progressive heart failure.

Living in his native Bellingham, he was working aboard ships as a junior engineer. At 22, he had just met Jenn Johansen, an Everett High School graduate who was finishing her degree at Western Washington University.

Strong and active, he had been a hiker and skier. That all changed when Gelhar developed a cough and had trouble breathing. A chest X-ray showed his heart was very enlarged. Doctors still don’t know what caused his condition.

So began a life-or-death journey. Gelhar not only had a heart transplant, he suffered a devastating stroke.

He has other scars, evidence of a heart pump that was implanted in 2010 at what is now Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane. That device — “to buy time,” he said — helped circulate blood to keep him alive during his three-year wait for a donor heart.

The left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, was battery-powered, but at night he plugged it into an electrical outlet. “I had a power cord coming out of my abdomen,” he said, showing a small scar.

Gelhar lives with the visible scars. Far worse have been the aftereffects of the stroke he suffered during his transplant surgery. Just 48 hours after the transplant, Gelhar had surgery on a clot in his brain stem that caused the stroke.

Jenn Johansen Gelhar, a 29-year-old cardiac nurse at The Everett Clinic, said her husband’s stroke was a complication of the transplant surgery. She remembers that terrifying time, when doctors feared her husband wouldn’t survive.

“Doctors were giving condolences,” she said. Sitting next to her husband Wednesday as he chatted and held their infant daughter, she added, “He’s a walking miracle.”

Recovery has been hard won.

After the stroke, he was in a coma for several weeks. Once awake, he was unable to walk or talk. He spent about three months hospitalized in Seattle, where physical and occupational therapy were intense.

At Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, he continues with weekly physical therapy sessions. He is now working on fine motor skills.

A year ago, he was in a wheelchair. Today, there is no obvious sign of Gelhar’s stroke. Still, he has trouble with one eye tracking properly. He can hold Sophie, but isn’t strong or sure-footed enough to carry her up and down stairs.

Now on disability, Gelhar doesn’t expect to be able to work on ships again.

He has done important volunteer work for LifeCenter Northwest. The federally designated nonprofit organ procurement organization works with families in Washington, Alaska, Montana and northern Idaho.

Gelhar lived with the critical need for organ donation. It’s a message he has spoken about to high school groups.

“It’s usually in a health class. We want kids to hear that question about organ donation before they hear it at the DMV,” he said, referring to the option of an organ-donor designation on a driver’s license.

It’s a conversation the Gelhars believe all families should have before a loved one dies. “It is ultimately up to the family,” Gelhar’s wife said. “You should really know what he or she would have wanted.”

With LifeCenter Northwest as an intermediary, Gelhar wrote a letter to the family of the man whose donated heart now beats in his chest.

The new father expressed his deep gratitude. In return, he received poignant letters from the donor’s parents.

“I wrote after Sophie was born,” Gelhar said.

Health concerns aren’t all behind them.

In a pillbox labeled by days of the week, Gelhar showed all the medications he needs, including immunosuppressant drugs that keep his body from rejecting his heart. There is physical therapy, and heart monitoring at UW Medical Center.

Yet with their baby girl and a vital gift of life, the road ahead looks so much brighter than what is behind them.

“We’re looking forward to our 30s,” Jenn Gelhar said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.